


"Tails" from Avengers Tower

by elysianprince



Series: Stark's Tower for Strays [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Domestic Avengers, Fluff, Gen, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-01-23 16:53:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21323503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elysianprince/pseuds/elysianprince
Summary: Yeah, the title is a pun.Everything that happens in these little snippets is 100% inspired by something my cats have actually done.Each chapter will be its own ficlet with any tags and warnings in the notes at the beginning of each one. The work's tags will be updated accordingly as each chapter is posted. There is no chronological rhyme or reason to any of these as they're just additional little moments for Stark's Tower for Strays that I felt like writing just for fun.
Relationships: Clint Barton & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Stark's Tower for Strays [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1463893
Comments: 4
Kudos: 55





	1. I Ain't Afraid of No Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> tags: gen, Halloween time, vague mentions of spoopiness, Clint and Tony are idiots
> 
> Fraction made me want more content of Clint and Tony being dumbasses together.  
This was supposed to be posted in time for Halloween, but then I got busy with youmacon, so here it is anyway because it's still Halloween in my heart until after Thanksgiving.
> 
> Inspired by the way my cats spook me by looking up at the ceiling like we're about to get abducted by aliens.

“Dude, your tower is haunted.”

Tony raised an eyebrow at Clint, who was lounging across the couch, lazily waving around one of the cat’s string toys. Orion was hardly paying attention, and Tony wasn’t sure if the toy was more for the cat’s amusement or Clint’s. “What the hell makes you say that?”

Clint nodded towards the cat. “Just wait.”

As if on cue, seconds later Orion’s attention suddenly whipped towards the ceiling, tail twitching and pupils dilating as he focused on something. It even sounded like he made a little chirp at whatever was up there. Tony followed his line of sight and squinted… but there was absolutely nothing as far as he could tell.

“J, is there like a bug or something in that corner?”

A moment later, JARVIS answered, almost sounding hesitant, “According to my scans, there is nothing on or around the ceiling, sir.”

“Tower’s haunted,” Clint drawled from his spot on the couch. 

Tony glared at the archer. “It’s not.”

Clint just gave him an unimpressed look.

The next couple of days, Tony couldn’t help but keep an eye on the cat to monitor his new habit of staring intently and unnervingly at absolutely fucking nothing. Which apparently happened a lot, and most consistently on the common floor. Every single time, they couldn’t find a damn thing. Even Natasha hadn’t been able to find whatever the hell the cat could apparently see.

It was starting to really give Tony the creepy crawlies (which honestly took a lot these days, all things considered). Had the cat always done this and it just took the team a few months to notice? Or were they suddenly being watched by some invisible (and possibly malevolent) entity? Was some villain haunting their asses?

“You know, some cultures and religions believe cats exist between this plane of existence and the realm of the dead,” Bruce unhelpfully supplied one morning when it happened again during breakfast.

“That’s really not helping, Brucie,” Tony said, rolling his eyes.

“Some also say the lines between realms become blurred around Halloween time,” Natasha added casually, taking a sip of her tea.

And that was why a few days later, Tony had constructed some sort of portable energy scanner and was camped out in the living room, watching Orion like a hawk.

“Are you scanning for ghosts?” Clint asked when he flopped down on the other end of the couch.

Tony sighed exaggeratedly. “Of course not. JARVIS is only equipped with certain scanners outside of the labs, so I’m just testing if cats can see surges of energy that he can’t pick up.”

“Sooo, you’re scanning for ghosts.”

Tony narrowed his eyes at the archer.

The scanner turned out to be mostly a bust because it didn’t pick up anything when Orion finally went into Seer Mode after an hour of vigilant surveillance (and ear scritches). It did, however, go off when Thor walked into the room, so Tony supposed it wasn't a total lost cause. 

“I'm starting to think he does it just to mess with us. There’s never fucking anything there!” Tony threw his hands up.

“Maybe we should call them,” Clint was grinning mischievously.

“Whom are we calling upon?” Thor asked as Tony loudly groaned, knowing exactly what Clint was going to say.

“The Ghostbusters.”

Tony threw one of the couch pillows and nailed Clint in the face with it. Judging by his laughter and the shit-eating grin on his face, he obviously had not been trying to dodge the pillow at all.

...They never did figure it out, but the cat _did_ stop doing it as often after Halloween passed.


	2. Iron Cat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony had to do a double take at the text from Rhodey before he noticed the links from the Avengers’ official twitter he had sent prior to the message. He clicked on them to see what Rhodey’s fuss was about. The links were to a couple of tweets with… their cat dressed up in costumes? 
> 
> It was quite frankly the most adorable thing Tony had ever seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tags: Halloween, tooth-rotting fluff, a bit of stevetony thrown in
> 
> Originally this was meant to be posted on Halloween as a kind of double feature with chapter 1, but I got busy and then it ended up taking me longer to include all of the Avengers in the way I wanted, so here it is! two weeks after Halloween lmao.
> 
> Please enjoy!

_hey, where’s the war machine one?? lol_

Tony had to do a double take at the text from Rhodey before he noticed the links from the Avengers’ official twitter he had sent prior to the message. He clicked on them to see what Rhodey’s fuss was about. The links were to a couple of tweets with… their cat dressed up in costumes? 

The first tweet featured a picture of Orion with a red cape velcroed loosely around his neck and a plush toy hammer at his feet with the caption “Thor and his beloved hammer Meowmir.” The lighting was _just right_, giving the cat’s orange fur a warm glow.

The second tweet was actually from the day before and declared some sort of “Avengers Halloween countdown” was starting. This time the picture was of Orion dressed in a kitty-sized shirt with Hawkeye’s logo evidently painted on in purple, and he was equipped with what looked to be an empty Pringles can that had been painted over and filled with toy plastic arrows to look like a quiver.

It was quite frankly the most adorable thing Tony had ever seen.

He shot off a quick reply to Rhodey. _well maybe if Uncle Rhodey visited more often, his favorite nephew might want to dress up like war machine_

_weren’t you still insisting he was Steve’s cat a few months ago?_

_it takes a village to raise a child, Rhodey-bear_

Tony saved the project he was working on and immediately headed up to the common floor where he was most likely to find out what the hell was going on. And sure enough, he found Clint and… Darcy? attempting to wiggle Orion into what appeared to be a Hulk costume (and somehow the cat didn’t even look miserable despite the weird angry green Hulk head on him, his adorable face peeking out from the opening of the Hulk’s mouth).

“Where’s his Iron Man costume?” He greeted the unlikely duo by asking.

“The store didn’t have any,” Darcy answered as she finished wriggling the bright purple pants onto the cat.

“Welcome to the club. They didn’t have Hawkeye ones either,” Clint grumbled.

Tony gasped in mock offense. Although honestly, it was kinda insulting because all of them equally risk their necks to keep the world safe. You’d think that’d be at least worth a shitty Halloween costume for pets. He made a mental note to contact the marketing team about it.

“Anyway, uh, since when do you live here? Did I miss the moving in party?” He asked Darcy.

“Jane is staying with Thor for a while because she’s got some science-y conference or research thing here, and she can’t function without me, so I tagged along. I’m her invaluable assistant.” She explained, sounding as if this should have been obvious to him. Well, things were hardly ever dull anytime the two of them were in town.

“And what’s this?” Tony gestured to the cat, who was really taking the whole being dressed up like a kid’s doll thing really well.

“I’m lending my talents to the Avengers’ social media accounts while we’re here.” She replied as she started scratching Orion’s chin, and the cat contentedly leaned into Darcy’s hand.

“Pretty sure we actually have someone in that position already.”

Darcy rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. “Yeah, and they’re boring and stuffy. You’ve gotta liven it up to actually connect with fans. Hence, the Halloween countdown.”

“You should probably take those off. I don’t think that’s gonna end well when he gets in the litterbox, and I’m not cleaning it up.” Tony added, pointing to the cat’s pants.

“No worries, there’s an opening.”

“Oh, so basically you all put our cat in assless chaps. Wonderful.”

Over the next several days, the cat was dressed up as various members of the Avengers, and the posts were wildly popular with the general public. People were even replying with cute pictures of their own pets dressed as the Avengers, too. Tony wondered how upset Jane would be if he poached her precious assistant for their social media team.

It turned out there were quite a few Avengers one couldn’t find store-bought pet costumes for, which was how the cat ended up in a literal spider costume for Black Widow, apparently.

“He’s got too many legs to be a spider,” Bruce pointed out.

“I’m well aware,” Darcy huffed.

There wasn’t one for the Winter Soldier, either, so Orion ended up with tin foil haphazardly wrapped around his front left leg and a red paper star stuck onto it.

“That’s a terrible idea,” Bucky himself had pointed out. “What if he tries to eat that shit?”

“Don’t worry,” Clint had brushed off the potential digestive dangers. “It’s just for pictures.”

Which meant that the damn cat immediately flopped over awkwardly and began to bite at the wrapping on his leg while everyone collectively yelled “NO!”

After the Winter Soldier costume was revealed on twitter (and no tin foil was ingested in the making of said photos, thank you very much, superhero reflexes), Steve got a text from Sam complaining about the lack of a Falcon costume so far.

“I’ll start on some wings,” Darcy nodded.

For a cat, Orion made an absurdly adorable bird.

_Of course_ there was no issue finding one for Captain America, and it came with a plushy helmet with two openings for the cat’s ears, along with a stiff felt shield that attached to his back. Tony couldn’t find it in himself to even playfully complain about the best store-bought costume being for Captain America when he saw the blindingly bright smile on Steve’s face when he saw Orion dressed up.

And in the midst of the countdown, Tony was working on his own costume for Orion. Two costumes, actually. Once he finished the War Machine one, he made sure to send multiple adorable pictures and all of the countdown photoshoot outtakes directly to Rhodey.

He was able to fabricate the cat’s costumes out of lightweight plastics and scaling the designs down to itty bitty kitty size wasn’t too bad after having JARVIS scan Orion in the workshop. He focused on just the torso and helmet since it seemed like their cat wasn’t too much of a fan of having shit attached to his legs after the near incident with the tin foil. 

Finally, Tony got to reveal the Iron Cat suit to the rest of the team on Halloween. The suit was absolutely perfect, if he had to say so himself. Orion’s little ears were poking out of the helmet adorably, and Tony had foregone a faceplate so that the cat’s whiskers weren’t bothered, so instead of a stoic mask there was just 100% precious kitty face showing.

It was an absolute hit with the team, just as he’d hoped. But even more so, Steve was completely gone over little Iron Cat, using that damned baby voice when he talked to Orion with a smile on his face that put the one from the Cap costume to shame. It was definitely making weird things happen to Tony’s heart.

What they had was still sorta new, as they’d only been dating for a few months (and had been openly out to the team even shorter than that), but Tony had to wonder if there would ever come a day where Steve’s smile didn’t nearly send him into cardiac arrest.

“You know, for a moment there I was concerned you’d make him an actual working suit,” Steve joked, finally pulling away from the cat to turn that blinding smile on Tony instead.

He tried to avoid making eye contact with Steve because the man always saw right through him, like some sort of lie detector power came along with the serum.

“..._Tony_.” Yup, there it was.

“Don’t worry,” Tony began, trying his best to sound nonchalant. “It’s uh, not quite functional.”

Steve just sighed fondly at him.

“...Yet.” Tony added.


	3. He's Like a Bottomless Pit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If anyone asked, Tony absolutely had not spent the past few hours sulking in the workshop avoiding Steve, and it certainly wasn’t because of the argument they had gotten into after returning from their mission earlier that day. 
> 
> Except he couldn’t (not) avoid Steve forever, and of course when Tony finally wandered to the communal floor, looking for another ice pack for the massive bruise forming on his shoulder, he could hear Steve’s voice in the kitchen.
> 
> And their cat meowing loudly at the man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tags: Steve/Tony, Established Relationship, lots of FLUFF, very vague mentions of injuries, this got way more emotional than I originally planned
> 
> My mom’s cat is 16 years old and weighs like 6 pounds, and that adorable little shit is constantly screaming to be fed even after he’s already eaten a ton, but I love him anyway. I have no idea where he puts it all. I'm starting to think he might be a flerken.
> 
> Also, we used to have a cat who would yell at my dad when she wanted to be fed, and he'd always whine that she was calling him an asshole.

If anyone asked, Tony absolutely had not spent the past few hours sulking in the workshop avoiding Steve, and it certainly wasn’t because of the argument they had gotten into after returning from their mission earlier that day. 

He had made a split-second decision against Steve’s orders, and it had paid off in the end, though his suit had gotten pretty banged up… Maybe even to the point that the entire system had gone down when he crash landed, but Tony himself was _totally fine_, and there was no reason for Steve to have gotten so upset with him over the whole thing.

When his boyfriend had finally pried the non-functional suit off of Tony, Steve had given him one of those incredibly life-affirming ‘thank god you’re not dead’ kisses that always left him feeling a bit weak in the knees. But by the time they’d returned to the Tower, Steve’s relief had faded and been replaced by a tension that eventually boiled over into their usual argument about Tony’s complete disregard for following Steve’s orders in the field.

Which was how Tony found himself alone in the workshop, nursing his very minor injuries from the crash-landing (he totally _wasn’t_ reckless, thank you very much, _Captain_), and absolutely not avoiding his boyfriend who had a stick up his ass yet again.

Except he couldn’t (not) avoid Steve forever, and of course when Tony finally wandered to the communal floor, looking for another ice pack for the massive bruise forming on his shoulder, he could hear Steve’s voice in the kitchen.

And their cat meowing loudly at the man.

As quietly as possible, Tony tried to stay just out of sight while he listened to Steve’s little exchange with Orion. It was unbearably adorable, as usual. Sometimes Tony found Steve having conversations with the cat, and it never failed to bring a smile to his face, even when he was pissed off at his boyfriend for whatever reasons.

“Oh, so now you’re yelling at me, too?” He heard Steve ask the cat, mock offense in his voice, and Tony had to bit his lip to hold back laughter.

Orion meowed loudly in response, clearly trying to express that he thought Steve was taking entirely too long to feed him. 

“Where are your manners? We didn’t raise you like this.” Steve complained to the cat, chiding him for how rude his meowing sounded. Orion gave a sharp “mya-rowr” in response, and Tony couldn’t hold back his laughter anymore, so he gave up on continuing to hide. 

“It sounds like he’s trying to call you an asshole,” he said, walking into the kitchen area to face his boyfriend. 

Steve rolled his eyes and let a sigh escape him. “Don’t project your own feelings onto the cat, Tony.” There was a slump to Steve’s shoulders that Tony didn’t particularly like, as if he was letting all his worries weigh him down again. He felt cracks begin to form in his resolve to stay mad at Steve.

“Well, he wouldn’t exactly be wrong.” Tony mimicked the cat’s meow a couple of times, and the little orange cat peered up at him with that sickeningly precious Puss in Boots face. “He probably picked it up from Clint. Maybe we should start a swear jar.”

The corner of Steve’s mouth ticked up towards a smile at that, “As if you wouldn’t be the top contributor for that.”

“...that’s fair. But we could turn it into a sort of donation jar or something. Every time Captain America swears, a puppy gets a new chew toy.”

Finally, that got a laugh out of his sullen boyfriend, and Tony could see some of the tension fade away. When he made eye contact with Steve, he was looking at Tony with such warmth and adoration that he could feel the last of his irritation with the man melt away. There Steve was, standing in the kitchen in sweatpants and a shirt that Tony recognized as his own (that will probably be extremely stretched out when Steve is done with it, but Tony definitely won’t complain about _that_), and arguing with the stray cat he picked up months ago.

It all just kinda… hit Tony at once how much he loved the man in front of him. Just hours ago, Steve was leading their team in a battle against Hydra forces, and now he was holding a can of cat food and letting himself be bossed around by the tiniest member of the eccentric little family the Avengers had made for themselves.

The last of his resolve absolutely crumbled at that. 

Tony shuffled forward to pull Steve into a hug, wrapping his arms around the blond’s waist and nestling his face right into Steve’s firm chest. He could hear the _clink_ of Steve setting down the can he had been holding before he felt strong arms wrap around him tightly and a gentle kiss pressed to the top of his head.

“I told you to get out of there. And then I was so worried when you didn’t respond after you went down because of the explosion…” Steve’s voice was slightly wavering as he murmured the words into Tony’s hair. “I immediately thought the worst…”

“It’ll take a lot more than that to get rid of me,” Tony reflexively tried to joke, but it didn’t quite feel right in that moment. “The suit’s comms were damaged in the crash. I didn’t mean to worry you, but also, don’t expect me to stop putting myself in danger to get the job done.”

“I know the odds when I make those decisions. So just… trust my judgment more, Steve.”

“Tony, it’s not about following whatever orders I give on the field. It’s about keeping yourself safe. The information on those servers weren’t worth risking your life. Next time, please value your own safety a bit more in your calculations...” Steve trailed off for a moment, then hugged Tony tighter. “I don’t think I could do this without you at my side.”

He felt his throat get a little tight at Steve’s honesty, so Tony tried to hide it with a joke. “I’ll try to keep that in mind the next time you’re caring loudly at me after I inevitably don’t listen to you again.”

Orion picked that moment to begin winding around their legs and yelling again, obviously not caring about interrupting because feeding him was so much more important. Oh well, any longer and Tony might have done something drastic like propose to Steve out of the blue, or something.

“Shhhh, can’t you see we’re having a moment here?” Tony shushed the adorable cat, which only resulted in him meowing even louder. “Didn’t someone feed you like an hour ago anyway? Geez, you’re a bottomless pit.”

Steve gave Tony a quick peck of a kiss and let go of him to get back to feeding the very demanding cat a little bit of food to quiet him down, and Tony leaned back against the counter as he watched the incredibly domestic scene. There was something comforting about it, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d ever felt this way in his entire life… Like he’d finally found the place he belonged, with a bossy feline, a loving supersoldier boyfriend, and a ragtag, but supportive family of stray heroes that seemed to keep growing every time he turned around.

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to be a little less reckless from now on.

If that was what would make Steve happy, at least.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!  
[my tumblr](https://elysian-prince.tumblr.com/)  



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